Strike hits German firm in Shenzhen

Chinese media report that over 5,000 employees, mostly female migrant workers, started a strike at a German producer of mobile phone components, Feihuang Electronic Factory at Shenzhen. The strike started at the evening of August 22 as a protest against proloning work hours and lowering wages, writes the China Tech News.

According to the workers, from last month on, the factory asked each of them to make 90 more chargers every hour and if they could not finish the task they needed to work extra hours, or they would not get the basic salary. From the evening of August 22 on, about 5000 workers began their strike and some of them reportedly broke into the facilities of the factory.

The factory has about 10,000 workers in total.

Is the Shenzhen Big Brother project going to work?

In China there is never a shortage of crazy big plans and the intention to use Shenzhen as a guinea pig for a massive monitoring of the population, as here reported by Bloomberg, seems one of them. All its residents get a residence card with chip with all the information you need on it, including for example "one-child conditions" and "personal credit history". Additional 20,000 camera's equipped for facial recognition will come on top of that project.

About $390 million will be invested for the project in Shenzhen. The government plans to first use the technology in Shanghai and Shenzhen, then adopt the identity cards in 660 cities if the pilot program is successful.

While it is a scary enough development to be watched, the chances of this becoming a success in China seems rather slim. A rather small place like Singapore could perhaps be able to do so, but how would that work in a country with 1.3 billion people where 150 million migrants are an important part of the economic system? In a country that is terribly short of government funding for education, health care and policing? It would only work if China would be a police state, and it is not.

A new nail house in Shenzhen

Isn't it a beauty? Simon World cuts-and-pasts from the otherwise unlinkable South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Mr. Choi and this wife got inspiration from the earlier success in Chongqing:

He admits he has been inspired by a Chongqing couple who held out for 11 days, while their house stood on a mound in the middle of 10-metre-deep pit, until the developers paid up. "The couple is my model. I'm sure I will win this battle as they did," Mr Choi said of the pair, whose home was dubbed the "coolest nail house" - slang for holdouts who refuse to be hammered down while their houses stand erect like nails after those around are demolished.

Striking crane operators win pay raise and union

Crane operators in the port of Shenzhen went on strike last Friday, AP reports, and resumed work at the beginning of the Sunday after they got a pay raise and were allowed to set up a trade union. Details are still lacking.